FILE – In this Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014 file photo, singer Chris Brown, right, arrives at the District of Columbia Superior Court in Washington, for a status hearing in a case in which he’s accused of hitting a man outside a Washington hotel. Lawyers for Brown are due back in a Washington court Thursday Feb. 20, 2014 to determine a date for his trial on a misdemeanor assault charge, but the singer won’t be in town. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

WASHINGTON — Prosecutors and lawyers for singer Chris Brown have chosen April 17 as the start date for his trial on a misdemeanor assault charge.

Brown’s lawyers and prosecutors picked the trial date Thursday during a hearing in Superior Court in Washington. Brown was not at the hearing.

The R&B singer was arrested in October after a man said the singer struck him outside the W Hotel when he tried to get in a picture Brown was taking with two other people. That man has filed a civil lawsuit seeking to recover medical bills.

When Brown was arrested, the Grammy winner was on probation in California for a 2009 attack on singer Rihanna, his then-girlfriend.

At a January hearing in Washington, one of Brown’s lawyers said Brown had rejected a plea deal.

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